Use your head!
Chapter IA
Ole Johnny Mudd was the happiest cowboy in all of New Mexico. He was a man who was always whistling while he worked.
One day Old Johnny Mudd was trudging toward town riding on his white horse and as always, with a tune on his lips: “I’ve left my ranch in the mountains, and I’ve have come to spend my money. I haven’t come down to barter, but I came to seek my honey. So saddle up my old pony, and my sorrel mare so nice, for if I can’t find Teresa, then her sister will suffice. When I got down to the village, going all along the highway, I stopped and asked all the people, for Tere’s house in the byway. They answered me all together: ‘Teresita’s here no more, but in San Luis with her parents, gone from here forever more.’”
He patted his white horse gently because without him, he would have to walk a very long distance and he wanted the horse to be happy as well.
He was leading a brown horse to market in order to sell him. He was very happy as he sang a merry little tune as he was gazing at the entire landscape, the sky, the sun and the clouds. He didn’t even notice that a stormy cloud was sneaking up on him. He noticed, but too late, that he was going to get caught in the storm.
Suddenly, he heard a loud thunderclap and he tried to hide under a tree so as not to get wet but before he could hasten his horse forward, he heard the sound of a thunderbolt. When suddenly the thunderbolt hit, it left him lying flat on the ground. When Old Johnny Mudd woke up, he noticed that the thunderbolt had also hit both of his horses.
They were lying, not too far from him with their eyes closed. Ole Johnny Mudd got up and he went over to look at the horses. The thunderbolt had hit them so hard that it had yanked off both their heads. Poor Old Johnny Mudd! Poor horses!
Old Johnny Mudd was so worried that he didn’t know what to think. At first he lifted the head of his white horse and then he looked at the head of his brown horse. He couldn’t ride on his white horse and he wouldn’t be able to sell his brown horse. He looked from one head to the next. He wondered, “What am I going to do now? Use your head, cowboy, use your head!”
Suddenly he got a good idea. Why not put the heads back on the horses again? It was such as easy thing to do. What a great idea! There was only one thing that was wrong with it: Old Johnny Mudd had been blinded by the light of the thunderbolt that he was able to put the heads back on the horse – but backward! He had placed the head of the white horse of the body of the brown horse and the head of the brown horse on the body of the white horse.
Being that it seemed that both horses were fine, Ole Johnny Mudd was happy once again.
He got on his white horse with its brown head and he led his brown horse with its white head. He continued walking through the desert. After the storm, the day grew hotter and hotter. Ole Johnny
Mudd got so thirsty as he crossed the great New Mexico desert. He had to look for something to drink.
As he was walking there in the desert, he came upon two bright springs. They both had very strange colors. They didn’t seem to have water though. The one that was yellowish contained curds and the whiter one held whey.
Ole Johnny Mudd looked from one to the other. He started to think. Nearby he happened to notice that there was an old stick
on the ground. He picked it up and with the stick he traced a shallow ditch from one spring to the other.
The curds ran toward the whey and they mixed all together so that by the time the sun set and the moon came out, Ole Johnny Mudd had made himself a little pile of cheese.
Find the Spanish version of this story on Page B6 and online at taosnews.com.